Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShipTwo, the world's first manned commercial spaceship

virgingalactic.com ^ | 7 Dec 2009

[B-Chan]

I like this ship! It's exciting!

[4rcane]

it looks fragile

[guitarplayer1953]

sub-orbital flight

How far up is that?

[tet68]

Get back to me when it can take off in LA and land
in London.

[pissant]

I’d hate to be the first one to fly that jalopy

[4rcane]

the nasa shuttle have all these heat platting and this one has nothing of that sort on it. This looks just like another aluminum plane

[tet68]

Doesn’t go as high as the shuttle.

[4rcane]

about 60km and its not really space flight imho.

[Kirkwood]

Virgin Vomit Comet... Riders will be incredibly ill on this ship due to its design and their lack of training.

[guitarplayer1953]

So they won’t be seeing any UFO?

[BradyLS]

Nor is traveling as fast when starting the return to earth. But it’s an interesting observation and a good question to ask why it doesn’t.

[DoughtyOne]

It doesn’t look so bad to me. I like what they’re doing.

[4rcane]

then this is all hype

[BradyLS]

How many test flights on a commercial flight plan will they do before it goes public, I wonder?

[BradyLS]

Exactly. Commercial space flight has to begin at some point. The Wright’s first powered flight wasn’t far and served no purpose other than to prove it could be done.

[DoughtyOne]

The shuttle goes orbital and re-enters at 17,000 mph approximately.

This probably comes back at hundreds of mph. There’s no need for tiles.

[omega4179]

it also doesn’t weigh tons and re-enter at a zillion mph like a shuttle.

[eclecticEel]

Similar to the Mercury capsules. I suppose orbital flight is going to take off with SpaceShip Three.

[JouleZ]

Amen, brother. I live in NM and want to know how they plan on landing these “child rockets”. Meaning, the Baron is just a kid with really big toys. I don’t want one to hit my house but he wouldn’t give a rat’s a$$ if it did.

[Yo-Yo]